Thread: Minn Kota Fortrex Troubleshoot

Loosing power from batteries to trolling motor plug??
Don’t quite understand what you are having trouble with.
Explain and I’ll for sure try to help.
Chuck


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Sorry I Was in a rush and not sure I explained in detail. Batteries are fully charged and new. Multimeter reads 12.8 or so in each. It’s wired for the 24 volt system and has worked the past 2-3 times after I completely rewired the system. The last time I went the whole thing was dead. Fooled with the foot control for a second and then it worked. And as soon as I put it back in the water dead again. Not sure if I did it correctly but the multimeter shows no power at the newly installed receptacle. If it gives a reading at the batteries it has to be the circuit breaker, receptacle, or the actual trolling motor correct? There should be nothing wrong with the receptacle as the wires are still firmly in contact and nothing is loose.


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A 12 volt test light will be a lot more helpful than a multi meter. The test light will add a load to the circuit that a multi meter will not. It with help track down the intermittent problems your are having with connections.

I would check voltage at each connection until I found where I was losing voltage

Great information. Tried to find one of the test lights at Home Depot and couldn’t find one. Figured I needed a multimeter anyway and that would take way let me know if the batteries were the problem or not. Didn’t know if the multimeter was capable of telling me if the connection at the circuit was bad or not.


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Yeah, that would be my guess.
Circuit breaker bad possibly,
Remove wires from outlet trolling motor wires are connected to. See if you have 24 volt to them. Reconnect the wires to receptacle and check there. If you’re good to that point it has to be the plug on motor or you can remove the plate under pedal and make sure everything connected well.
Also might be switch under button on foot control. Is it round or half mood shaped on your unit.
That will tell me what type switch it is.
Chuck.


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On high voltage a multimeter is great. On 12 volts not so much. I bought a test light from an auto parts store. It does have a digital display that shows the voltage. Lights up red or green to tell you polarity. It surely helped me sort out my recent rewire of my boat. The Fluke meter I have just doesn't do a good job on low voltage

Definitely getting power to and through the circuit breaker. Today it seemed like it got a little power to the motor but it quickly shut off before the propeller turned. I’m thinking it’s the foot control and not the receptacle and plug.


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